I knew at once when I saw him step out of his boat here in this sad village, and I have lived with him almost daily ever since--only to be more sure than at first." His hearers made no answer.

They listened tolerantly enough, as one listens to a child or to any other incapable of keeping to the business in hand.
"Oh, I know more than you suspect," said the Marquis, suddenly.

"There are some even in our own party who have doubts, who are not quite sure.
I know that there was a doubt as to that portrait of the Queen," he half glanced toward Dormer Colville.

"Some say one thing, some another.
I have been told that, when the child--Monsieur de Bourbon's father--landed here, there were two portraits among his few possessions--the miniature and a larger print, an engraving.

Where is that engraving, one would ask ?" "I have it in my safe in Paris," said a thick voice in the darkness.
"Thought it was better in my possession than anywhere else." "Indeed! And now, Monsieur Turner--" the Marquis raised himself on his knees and pointed in his eager way a thin finger in the direction of the banker--"tell me this.